


Moon Phase

by doublejoint



Series: peachtober 2020 [1]
Category: Bleach
Genre: Established Relationship, Long-Distance Relationship, M/M, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-03
Updated: 2020-10-03
Packaged: 2021-03-08 01:02:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,009
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26787133
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/doublejoint/pseuds/doublejoint
Summary: Kisuke’s always been better in wide open spaces where he has total control, rather than working within a set of limitations and expectations.
Relationships: Hirako Shinji/Urahara Kisuke
Series: peachtober 2020 [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1953295
Comments: 2
Kudos: 20





	Moon Phase

**Author's Note:**

> #peachtober day 1: Home

The first month they were here in Karakura, it rained nearly every day, and that had turned out to be typical. The sun shows itself often enough to remind them all it’s there, through the haze and clouds or against a sky harsh enough to hurt one’s eyes if one isn’t careful enough. On those days, Kisuke would pull his hat lower and Shinji would skulk in the shadows, and they usually wouldn’t meet up outside. It seems like both a very long time ago and not long at all, which, really, it was. Time is funny that way. The rain comes again and again, until you can’t see more than a meter in front or behind, until every block looks more or less the same, until stains wash away or fade into the background, as if they were always there.

Today it’s simply overcast, but that’s as much a precursor to the rain as a clear sky here; the clouds gather and disperse at their leisure. Kisuke brings his umbrella just in case, and the first drops begin to fall when he’s still waiting by the river.

“You picked a fine day,” Shinji says, scrunching his nose as a raindrop lands on it.

“You kept me waiting.”

“I saw you get here.”

Kisuke tilts his head and pops the umbrella open. Shinji steps under it. The marks from the raindrops are apparent on his haori, like small scorches, Kisuke thinks. 

“It would be easier if you just came back. I wouldn’t have to wait until I got leave or time away. The fucking paperwork gets worse and worse.”

(They’ve had this argument before.)

“I told you. It’s my choice. It’s too boring over there.”

Shinji does not roll his eyes this time. It’s an oversimplified explanation, sure, without the proper depth, the explanation that there’s more room for him here--Kisuke’s always been better in wide open spaces where he has total control, rather than working within a set of limitations and expectations. 

“Why don’t you come back here?”

“Too rainy. And it doesn’t pay well.”

The rain is coming down harder now, and Kisuke takes Shinji’s arm.

“Shall we?”

“Ever the gentleman,” says Shinji, his lips twisting.

There’s the smile Kisuke wants to see. He kisses Shinji before they set off; Shinji’s mouth is warm and he looks as if he wants to pull Kisuke back in when Kisuke straightens up.

They take the long way. Shinji never comments on it anymore, but a few stores have been swapped out since the last time Shinji was here; the empty lot is now a shiny new apartment building with a convenience store in the bottom. The car models parked on the streets are shinier and sleeker, and the bikes a little rustier. It used to be things changed before their eyes but they stayed more or less the same, as if the town was in a cocoon of change and they were somehow not included, air pockets, inverted pieces of the outside. At some point, though, Kisuke had been absorbed into it himself; Shinji had always resisted, always maintained himself apart, always felt a stranger resigned to his body and this town. 

The streets are quiet but for the sound of rain, sometimes underneath the wheels of passing cars and buses. Under an awning, backlit by a restaurant sign, a woman in a suit fumbles with her lighter. A kid runs around a corner, heading possibly for shelter, possibly for something else.

“It’s always fun to guess their motivations, isn’t it?” says Shinji.

“Yeah,” Kisuke says. 

(No one’s there really to see them, or see Kisuke with his arm looped through something invisible, the umbrella off-center over his head. And what would happen if they were? Kisuke’s that strange store proprietor, if he’s anything to anyone here. It’s nice, not having to be someone, having a name and position that carry as much weight as you want them to.) 

They reach the shop eventually; the town is finite and even going backwards in a winding path they’d manage to find it unavoidably. 

“How much time do you have?” Kisuke says as they enter the shop (behind the counter, Jinta pretends not to see them).

“Today? I’m free all afternoon. Thought we might have time for a picnic or something.”

“Were you really expecting better weather?”

“I can always hope,” says Shinji.

* * *

Shinji dresses in the dark, the shades still over the window and the lights turned out. Kisuke can make out his form, a blur, though not his fingers fastening his clothes or the expression on his face. Shinji stops most of the way through, leaning back on the bed and halfway on top of Kisuke. Kisuke winds his fingers through the ends of Shinji’s hair; he’s just cut it and the length is uniform, no split ends (unlike Kisuke’s own, but Tessai will take care of that when he’s bothered enough to grab scissors and shove Kisuke into a chair in front of the bathroom mirror, one of these days). 

“Stay?” Kisuke says, because every once in a while Shinji does stay a day or two, unplanned (and he’ll drive his lieutenant crazy, but that’s not Kisuke’s problem). 

“Come with?” Shinji says in response.

“I’ll walk you out.”

The clouds are dissipating; the sun is setting in a red and orange sky. But the rain will be back, if not tomorrow then the day after or the day after that. The street outside the shop is deserted; Shinji gives Kisuke a goodbye kiss under the awning. He bites Kisuke’s lip and smushes his forehead against the brim of Kisuke’s hat. Can’t be comfortable.

Shinji draws his sword and cuts into the sun-soaked sky. A black butterfly circles around his head. Kisuke watches, arms folded, as Shinji steps through the doorway and it closes behind him. He lowers his hat as the door vanishes, to block out the harsher rays of light, but he stays outside until the brightest light in the sky is the bulging gibbous moon.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading!
> 
> I've just started a rewatch/reread of Bleach and there are a lot of blind spots in my memory of canon, so if I got any details wrong please let me know.


End file.
